Dedicated Team
A team of our engineers works on your product for months or years, to priorities you set. Its size and mix of skills change as the work changes.
A dedicated development team is a group of MERCIL engineers assigned to your product as one team. It brings its own practice for code review, testing, deployment and estimation, and it is responsible for what it delivers.
The model suits work that continues for years and changes direction. The same MERCIL team has built and developed Biddee's real-time auction marketplace for three years and has kept adding features since launch.
Is this the right fit?
You may need this if
Development on the product never stops
The system is central to the business and needs new features every month, with no end date.
Hiring takes too long
Recruiting an in-house team would take longer than the roadmap allows, and some skills are hard to hire.
Priorities change every quarter
A fixed-scope contract would need renegotiating each time the business changes direction.
Context is lost when people change
Each new project brings new engineers who spend months learning your business rules again.
What we deliver
A team that fits the work
Developers and a tech lead, with design, QA or DevOps people added when needed and released after.
Written decision rights
Architecture and priorities stay with you, and implementation choices with the team, agreed before work starts.
Regular demos of working software
Working features shown on a fixed cadence, so you can see progress and redirect the team.
Composition reviews
Set checkpoints on whether the team's size and skills still fit the work.
Handover kept current
Documentation and infrastructure-as-code updated throughout, so your staff or another vendor could take over.
How we work
Every engagement runs through the same six-stage fitting process, from the first consultation to long-term care. The stages stay in the same order; how deep each one goes depends on the project.
See the full fitting process- ConsultationDiscover
- MeasureAnalyze and architect
- PatternDesign
- FittingBuild with you
- FinishingHarden and launch
- AftercareMaintain and support
How a dedicated team is set up
A dedicated team differs from staff augmentation, where individual engineers join your process under your managers. Our team works to your priorities but brings its own engineering practice and a lead responsible for delivery. If you only need engineers to fill seats, a staffing agency will usually cost less. For a defined project with a fixed scope and deadline, a project engagement is cheaper, and we will suggest one.
At the start we write down who decides what: architecture and priorities sit with you, and implementation approach with the team. Without that, technical questions either wait on your side or get settled without you. We begin with a small core team, add people once it has a working rhythm, and change the mix as the work changes, with more design early on and more QA before a major release.
Organizations we work with
Engagements span build, integration and long-term support. Named with permission; clients under NDA are not listed.
Related services
- Enterprise Software Development: when the work is a fixed-scope project with a deadline.
- Maintenance & Support: when the system mostly needs upkeep and small changes.
- DevOps & CI/CD: when your own delivery process is the bottleneck.
- Solution Architecture: when you are still deciding what to build.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a dedicated development team cost?
It is priced by team composition and duration: how many people, which roles, their seniority and how long the commitment runs. It is not billed per ticket or per hour logged. We give a written estimate after a short scoping call, sized to the work you describe.
Who manages the team day to day?
Usually a lead on our side handles delivery and works to priorities you set. Some clients prefer to run the team through their own product owner, which works well when that person has time for it every week, and less well when it is one responsibility among several.
Can we scale the team up or down?
Yes, with a notice period agreed at the start so both sides can plan. We review the team's size at set checkpoints and propose reducing it if it is larger than the work needs. Adding a specialist for one integration or a QA engineer before a release is also normal.
Will the same people stay on our project?
That is the intent, because knowledge of your business rules and codebase builds up over time and is a large part of what you pay for. If someone has to move, we tell you in advance and overlap the new person with the old one for a handover period.
Can we hire the team members directly later?
Building permanent in-house capability is a reasonable goal, and we can agree terms for it at the start of the engagement. Setting those terms early avoids an awkward negotiation later and lets both sides plan the transfer, including a handover period.
Next step
Start with a conversation
Tell us about the problem you are trying to solve. A senior person reads every inquiry and replies with our view of fit, scope and cost, including when another option would suit you better.